Aubrey Limburg: “Enhancing the study of racial/ethnic disparities in health: A project linking Medicaid and Census Bureau data”

Abstract: Medicaid data are used frequently to investigate racial and ethnic disparities in health. However, there is considerable variation in the completeness of race/ethnicity information in Medicaid data across the United States (U.S.). To address these gaps, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Enhancing Health Data (EHealth) Program assessed the feasibility, benefit, and effectiveness of linking Medicaid enrollment data (T-MSIS) with Census Bureau microdata (i.e., Decennial Census, American Community Survey (ACS), Census Numident) to document and track racial/ethnic disparities in health more effectively. Findings from this research demonstrate significant potential for using Census Bureau data sources for complementing existing health data that commonly lack important demographic characteristics, such as race/ethnicity. This talk will provide an overview of the new and innovative EHealth program and discuss the findings for this Medicaid-focused project.

Bio: Aubrey Limburg is a survey statistician in the Enhancing Health Data (EHealth) Program at the U.S. Census Bureau. In this position, she supports a variety or research projects focused on creating unique and novel linkages between administrative records at the Census Bureau and various types of health records as a means of expanding research on population health. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2022.